This survey course considers Caribbean music’s within a
broad and historical framework. Caribbean musical practices are
explored by illustrating the many ways that aesthetics, ritual,
communication, religion, and social structure are embodied in
and contested through performance. These initial inquiries open
onto an investigation of a range of theoretical concepts that
become particularly pertinent in Caribbean contexts --concepts
such as post-colonialism, migration, ethnicity, hybridity, syncretism,
and globalization. Each of these concepts, moreover, will be explored
with a view toward understanding its connections to the central
analytical paradigm of the course -- diaspora. Throughout the
course, we will listen to many different styles and repertories
of music, ranging from calypso to junkanoo, from rumba to merengue,
and from dancehall to zouk. We will then work to understand them
not only in relation to the readings that frame our discussions
but also in relations to our own North-American contexts of music
consumption and production.